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Friday, April 29, 2011

I have been participating in the Weekend Assignment since the summer of 2004, just a few months after John Scalzi founded the meme as part of his AOL Journals gig. Within a few weeks it became an obsession with me. Since then I have written an entry in every single Weekend Assignment, whether the topic was assigned by Scalzi or, in more recent years, by my friend Carly or myself, or by someone else. A number of you have suggested topics as "guest professors," and for this I am grateful, even if I didn't use them all.

But the meme has been in decline for years, with most topics garnering from one to three entries, mine included. Coming up with fresh ideas for it, and second-guessing which ones are most likely to inspire participation, is a process that ceased to be fun for me over the last year or so. At the same time, my own life has changed dramatically in the last few months, as I've gone from working 4 to 7 hours a week to working full-time and then some. All in all, the prospect of writing the next Weekend Assignment question has become a chore instead of a game.

So I'm giving it up.

If anyone wants to take over this venerable meme, I will be glad to pass the torch, and help you keep it alight with announcements and promotions during the transition. I'll even do the assignments, but only as a participant.

Frankly, I suspect nobody will take me up on this offer, and the Weekend Assignment will quietly die. And that's okay. It's had a good, long run, encouraged people to write, and introduced bloggers to each other. Even if there is never another Weekend Assignment topic, the meme is far from a failure overall. Its time has just passed -- or, at least, my time as its champion has passed.

When I was 24 years old, I put together my first “entertainment system”. A stereo receiver hooked up to a TV, VCR, CD player and speakers. I don’t think I even had a DVD player yet, and I certainly did not have cable. I put it all together myself and it all worked. That weekend, my brother, then age 20, came over. I dragged him to the room to brag. Not about the stuff, mind you. But the fact that I did my homework, made good consumer decisions, and put it all together by myself. He took one look and said, “This is all wrong,” and started pulling out cables.

After 45 minutes or longer, we finally decided that one of us would continue to wait where we were while the other checked out the other apparently deserted parking lots at the same intersection. If I recall correctly, that was how we found Bob, and boy, was he mad! We had all been right where we had said we'd be, but missed each other in the dark, simply because it didn't occur to Bob that we might be shivering in the cold in the grocery store parking lot on the northeast corner of the intersection, not warm and safe in the bar on the southwest corner.

Thanks to everyone who has ever written up a Weekend Assignment entry, or taken the time to read the entries of others. See you around!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Please note: I am extending the deadline on this Assignment for one week, to Wednesday night April 27th. This is to give people (including me!) more time to come up with an entry despite a busy holiday week (Holy Week and Passover). We will resume our usual schedule with Weekend Assignment #367 on April 28th.--KFB.

Weekend Assignment #366: You're Doing It Wrong
Tell us about a mistake you made: directions botched or misunderstood, minor disasters suffered because you did something incorrectly. I'm thinking of problems with "Some Assembly Required" projects, maps misread and appointments missed, problems learning to use technology, etc., preferably with hilarious results!

Extra Credit: How good are you at giving directions, or teaching others to do something correctly?

You know how this works, right?

You have until next Wednesday night to answer this question in your blog or in the comments below.

If you do participate, please leave a comment here with your name and the URL of your entry.

Don't forget to link back to here in the entry itself.

That's all there is to it! Please play this week if you can. It's not nearly as much fun without you!

Last week, I asked about your tax preparation strategies. Apparently nobody wanted to talk about taxes except me. But appearances are deceiving, because Anne did the Assignment and forgot to mention it! :)

Even though I'm an accountant, and furthermore rely on my favorite tax preparation software, income tax preparation still intimidates me, almost every year. This year I was worried about the amended tax forms I got from First Magnus Liquidation Trust, and about the 40 boxes of donations to St. Michael's to sell at the English Faire, the dregs of which I hadn't finished cataloging after many hours of work on it. Plus I recently started working full time again, and had less time for chores at home. So I'd put it off until the very end of March, or possibly the first of April.

Once upon a time (read as: up until this year), I pulled my paperwork together as soon as humanly possible and loaded up the Turbo Tax. The faster one files, the faster one receives the refund. Assuming that one is entitled to a refund. I always found it fun - Turbo Tax is good stuff. While I am not the most organized person in the world, I can generally keep my tax information in one place.

This year, for the first time, I used an accountant. My finances became a bit more complicated and I figured it was time.

Thanks to Josie of josiespeaksup for submitting a topic idea last week on the "Be a Guest Professor page. I'll get to your suggestion soon. If you have an idea for an Assignment, please let me know!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Weekend Assignment #365: Tax Time
What is your strategy for doing your taxes? Do you get them done as soon as you can get hold of the paperwork, put them off to the last minute, or something in between? Do you hire someone, do the work yourself, get your spouse to do it, or share the load? Do you mail forms or e-file?

Extra Credit: Have you ever had to revisit a tax return after filing, due to an audit or other circumstances?

You know how this works, right?

You have until next Wednesday night to answer this question in your blog or in the comments below.

If you do participate, please leave a comment here with your name and the URL of your entry.

Don't forget to link back to here in the entry itself.

That's all there is to it!

Last week, for Weekend Assignment #364: Ahead in the Clouds?, I asked about your use of "cloud" technology, in which data is stored online and streamed rather than stored on your computer. Please click on each name to read the full entry:

I have enjoyed streaming video from Academic Earth and from hulu.com. But it is sort of like books. There are things I borrow and things that I buy. I still buy DVDs (though not nearly as many as in the past). I still have a half-full DVR of things I am not watching. I haven't tried Netflix yet because I don't want to add another monthly expense.

When it comes to entertainment content, I'm still relatively traditional (as defined by "tradition" of the last decade, anyway). In other respects, I have embraced "cloud computing." I've used Google Docs for years as my main writing space, just because it allows me to access my documents anywhere. A good chunk of my life lives on Google's clouds, actually - my e-mail, many of my photos, my blog; I will be in BIG trouble if they ever crash!

All in all, though, I'm not that much into using cloud-based streaming and storage in preference to having the file locally, or even a physical object. I don't buy many CDs, but I do buy every Doctor Who CD from composer Murray Gold more or less as soon as it's available in the U.S. A few of them I've bought twice, because I've been known to wear them out.Then I rip them to iTunes at work and at home

About Me

Author of magazine articles, trading cards, and the Mâvarin novels. Intermittently seeking an agent and a publisher. Accountant, church webmaster, ex-fanzine editor. Married since 1979, one husband, no kids, two dogs, no cats.
Email is mavarin2 at gmail.com. Home is Casa Blocher, better known as The Museum of the Weird. Welcome!